METAPHYSICAL MEETING, September 27, 2012
Contents
| - Topic | |
| - Call to the meeting | |
| - Readings | |
| - Participant contribution A | |
| - Participant contribution B |
Topic
Commandments Nine and Ten
Call to the meeting
Our next metaphysical meeting will be held on Monday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the reading room study room and by teleconference. The topic is the 9th and 10th commandments, “Thou shalt not bear false witness...” and “Thou shalt not covet...” (Ex. 20:16,17).
As you use these two commandments in your prayers about our branch church and its forward progress, you may want to consider these questions:
Ninth Commandment
Think about being on a witness stand in a court room, being asked to testify about our church. How would you testify? What is the truth about our branch church? (Hint: The answer is a Christian Science treatment for our church.)
How do we continue to be faithful witnesses to the mission of the Church of Christ, Scientist? How will this witnessing benefit our branch church?
Tenth Commandment
How does covetous thinking attempt to undermine the forward progress of our branch church? How do we defend against this kind of thinking? (Hint: Look up the definitions of covet and covetous.)
Your prayerful contemplation of these commandments may lead you in a different direction with respect to their applicability to our branch church’s progress. Please feel free to share your inspiration, regardless of the direction it takes.
We look forward to hearing your inspiration!
Readings
I John 5:6 it
Isa 43:9,10 (to :), 12
II Chron 20:2 there (to ;), 3, 4 (to :), 14, 15, 17 (to 2nd :), 27
John 14:1-4, 27
Luke 6:47, 48
S&H 3:22
S&H 254:2-8, 10
Un 11:3-26
Mis 18:30
Mis 140:26
Pul 10:16-28 (to .)
Participant contribution A
9th Commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor:
I started out by writing a short courtroom drama to illustrate this commandment with respect to our branch church, but it would have been far too long. Then, I thought about how I would bear witness about our church, if I were called to do so.
A witness testifies to the facts in a case. A child of God can only know and observe is the Truth. We are called as God’s witnesses to testify to the truth about our church. A proverb says, “A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies” (Prov. 14:25). Our church is in the “business” of delivering souls, a wonderful reason for giving true testimony or being a faithful witness.
What is the truth about our church? Here are a few ideas:
- We have a permanent place in the kingdom of heaven, and it is realized on earth through spiritual understanding. This place has already been prepared for us by the Christ – “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2, 3). Not only is our place already prepared, we will be received by the Christ.
- We cannot be “shut out” of the city due to city codes, financial conditions, or lack of suitable real estate. Jesus met his municipal obligations by finding his tax money in the mouth of a fish. He knew he wouldn’t be impeded by human laws that needed to be obeyed. This, of course, is in contrast to his defiance of religious law falsely attributed to God. He had the right amount of money to pay his taxes. We will have the right amount of money to do whatever we’re going to do. He had the right locations for his teaching and preaching – a hillside, a boat, in the temple. We will have the right location to carry on our mission. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 I am). Applying this to our church, through the expression of the Christ in all of our church activities, we have life, activity, purpose, etc., that can be seen and experienced by everybody in our community. We have it abundantly, as represented by enough members to cover all the jobs in the church without stressing anybody out and enough money when we need it.
- An important aspect of this witnessing about our church is to testify to our fearlessness. It means eradicating every suggestion that we won’t have enough or that we won’t have a place. It’s not a courageous front that we need to put on, but a calm assurance that God is in control, that we are constantly cared for by Him and that each member and all those with whom we interact as we work through this are hearing the same message from Him.
10th Commandment, Thou shalt not covet...:
Covetousness is the denial of God’s power and presence in your life, denying that satisfaction comes from Him and that he provides all your needs abundantly. Covetousness is a strong desire for gratification of the senses, whether acted upon or not.
Mrs. Eddy wrote strong words against covetousness:
“Envy, evil thinking, evil speaking, covetousness, lust, hatred, malice, are always wrong, and will break the rule of Christian Science and prevent its demonstration...” (Mis. 19:1-4 to ;).
“Self-ignorance, self-will, self-righteousness, lust, covetousness, envy, revenge, are foes to grace, peace, and progress; they must be met manfully and overcome, or they will uproot all happiness. Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you, — and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory” (Mis. 118:21-28).
The fact that covetousness prevents the demonstration of Christian Science is a pretty strong motivator in obeying this commandment. And, when we overcome covetousness along with a long string of other ungodlike qualities, we gain everlasting victory. That sounds pretty good.
I made a list of things that we might be coveting, and then thought of a very short treatment for each of them:
Newer building: We are the structure of Truth and Love, which never wears out or degrades.
More members: Our church is full of the ideas of God, which are infinite in number. In fact, it is overflowing with God’s ideas.
Bigger Sunday School: “The spiritual thoughts are representatives of Life, Truth, and Love” (S&H 582:28) are unlimited and forever present. Truth is a magnet for seekers. All of God’s children want and can understand Truth. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6). This also works for the Reading Room.
Participant contribution B
Bearing false witness means working erroneously regarding others or ourselves. Being covetous means desiring something that belongs to another. These two commandments thus go together in forbidding any behavior that would prevent our church from going forward.
If we are making assumptions or forming conclusions about our church that indicate lack, insufficient resources, unfulfilled goals, a reduced following, lack of recognition in our community, inadequate opportunity in our city, or any of a myriad of other negative prospects, are we thinking about church in the most constructive manner? Are we indeed thinking about what our church truly is? If not, isn’t that bearing false witness?
What can we do about it? A great deal. We have expert advice in Hymn 144, second stanza:
The mortal sense [of church] we must destroy,
If we would bring to light
The wonders of eternal Mind [church]
Where sense is lost in sight.
Thus we need to turn away from the false evidence and realize the “structure of Truth and Love” as our real and only church. At the same time, we don’t ignore what apears to be challenging situations. We can take each challenge and see the spiritual counterfact to it, the immediacy of Truth, where Spirit is the one and only substance. Our church cannot be deprived of opportunity because all real being is of God. In the infinite expression of Soul, our church possesses interest, activity, purpose, and resources. It is a reflection of the ever-active Mind, and of the structure of Principle. Therefore, it is intact, recognized, and significant. We can rejoice in this realization of divine order.
We need not think that other churches have opportunity and resources that we don’t have. Nor that others are able to do things that we can’t. That is coveting. Why must we so earnestly not covert? Because all real accomplishment is an expressing of divine Principle. It’s got nothing to do with human resources or ability, and has no relationship to what others may do or possess. We reach back to divine Mind, so that we realize Jesus’ statement: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
On that basis we go ahead confidently. I was impressed by an article titled “The Tenth Commandment” by Annie M. Knott, published in the 11 July 1908 Christian Science Sentinel. She wrote that “blessings come when we look up to the open windows of heaven for the supply of our need, whatever it be.” She went on to write: “This view of the tenth commandment shows the Decalogue to be a perfect circle, without beginning or end, and love ‘the fulfilling of the law’”.
Yes, both false witnessing and coveting amount to having other gods, which takes us back to the First Commandment. In reality, our church is founded and persists on the rock, the spiritual foundation, that is God manifest for and through His spiritual idea, man, inevitably.